This is the movie I can imagine Quentin Tarantino making as a teenager, breaking into the Troma studios in the middle of the night after eating a whole bag of ‘shrooms. There is lots of graphic violence (most of it way, way over the top) and totally deranged characters, but Rutger Hauer’s completely sincere performance as the titular hobo is what drives this film. I’m not saying his acting is great in this movie, but it’s no worse than Stallone in “Rambo” and much more compelling. Don’t even get me started on the trio of villains, who may have been paid in crank to appear on camera. Other than Hauer, there’s nobody else I recognized other than
Rob Wells, probably best known as “Ricky” from the raunchy hit Canadian TV series “Trailer Park Boys,” who makes a cameo as a guy who gets decapitated with a barbed wire noose while imprisoned in a manhole cover fashioned around his neck for just such a reason.

Lovers of grindhouse will dig this movie and director Jason Eisener obviously knows his audience. The brilliance of this movie, and yes, I do mean brilliance, is that you just keep watching because you have to know what’s going to happen next. Watching this movie made me wonder if I should write some grindhouse revenge novels…. hmmmm… something to think about. Chamber me another shell, hobo. Let’s rip this town to shreds.

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Which is why the visual feast of The Wall just attacks your synapses along with this music, which has grown even more poignant than ever before given our constantly destablizing geopolitical climate and the fear that is being used to control us more than ever before. The show is rendered in two halves, each side of the record with the first half featuring the building of the actual physical 100+ foot wall that becomes a state of the art video screen displaying 3-D rendered versions of Gerald Scarfe’s iconic mating flowers, walking hammers and the full trial sequence from The Wall feature film along with video montages, flying bricks and new Waters-esque material that will leave your jaw on the floor. What else can you say about a show that begins with a scale model WW2 Tiger smashing into the sides of the wall at the end of “In the Flesh”.

I was lucky to see Roger Waters perform “Dark Side of the Moon” in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl in 2007 and thought he sounded pretty damn good then but his vocals on The Wall tour are impeccable. He sounds almost exactly like the album and his band renders nearly note-perfect performances of the material. The Wall has always been Roger’s masterwork and even though he is the only member of Pink Floyd on stage, I can honestly tell you that the band is so amazing that I really didn’t think about the absence of David Gilmour as guitarist Dave Kilminster rendered all the Gilmour guitar solos perfectly and vocalist Robbie Wycoff does a damn fine job singing Gilmour’s vocal parts.

I’ve waited 30 years to see The Wall in concert and I can accept that I will never see Pink Floyd perform it but seeing so masterfully at the helm of his magnum opus was something I will never forget. Best concert I’ve ever seen, hands down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGNVANm2nEw

Content is King… I think most of us know that phrase and try to aspire to this philosophy but seldom does anyone talk about why that is and what it takes. Content Rules by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman is a brilliant look at why content is the keystone of branding.

“Social Media” is a phrase that I think a lot of people bandy around like an errant shuttlecock without really understanding how it works–a concept so simple it almost defies belief in this mechanized society. Social media relies on audience engagement. I’ll argue that the old forms of media that some of us New Media evangelists decry as dead are still very much alive and lucrative but for the kind of audience that spends a lot of time on the internet, social engagement and interaction are the way to elevate your brand into some form of visibility.

Word of Mouth.

Ask any marketer and no matter how many smartphones, tablets or e-readers are pumped into the marketplace, the single most effective form of advertising still is a recommendation from someone whose opinion you respect. Great content spurs discussion and turns your content from something inert into something with a measurable pulse.

And in CONTENT RULES, Ann and C.C. lay out years of hard-earned lessons in one simple and short read that even this grizzled seemingly know-it-all veteran of new media monetization and content creation learned a few things in the first couple of chapters alone–like what cliches to avoid and how to better target my content to my audience. I only wish I had a copy of this book 5 years ago!

I truly can’t say enough about the value of the information stuffed inside CONTENT RULES because branding is not just for companies and products. No matter what your endeavor is, if you want to move the chains you have to get people to believe in you and knowing the foundation of what makes engaging and successful content on the web will help you achieve your goals faster and more efficiently. Seriously, no matter how much experience you have working in this brave new world you will benefit greatly by learning from everybody else’s mistakes so go buy this book and start kicking some serious ass today!

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Thanks to ICANN, all domain registrars are going to be charged 7% more for registering domains so that means every domain registrar will be raising prices on July 1, 2010. You the customer can still get great savings when you use these GoDaddy coupons

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I’ll admit that I didn’t want to see Blue Man Group at first. I would see these bald, blue-headed goofs on the Tonite Show or somewhere on TV and think it was some kind of weird performance art thing that would probably somehow turn me gay or something (as is my fear of almost all performance art things). But my wife wanted to and we were staying at the Luxor where, at the time, the Blue Man Group show was held. I hadn’t even really heard any of their music. To my chagrin, I just dismissed it as something I wouldn’t like. Boy, was I wrong. The Blue Man Group show was, hands down, one of the most mind-blowing and entertaining spectacles I’ve ever seen.

As we walked out of the theatre dragging my jaw across the floor, I told my wife that “in a million years, after Haliburton has somehow managed to destroy everything and everyone on the Earth, if the only thing that survives in the rubble is some kind of copy of this Blue Man Group show, then whichever alien beings who find it will at least understand the extent of human creativity.”

Seriously.

And no, I wasn’t stoned. I wasn’t drunk. But I can tell you that I felt I had gorged myself on the sensory buffet that is a BMG show. When you see these blue fools on TV what you don’t get is the full aural assault of their music. Live, the music is a force that grabs you by the throat like Darth Vader’s kung-fu grip. Imagine the bastard lovechild of the greatest Ennio Morricone spaghetti western scores mixed with virtuoso percussion. It may seem ridiculous that they are pounding on PVC tubes such as the Drumbone (above) but when you hear the amazing dynamic range they manage to create from such ordinary-but-not objects you will swear your ears are playing tricks on you.

But they aren’t. The full-body rumble of BMG music just rocks your senses so hard you’ll feel like an epileptic on a tilt-a-whirl, but in a really, really good way.

On top of the 3 Blue Men on stage, there’s also a kickass and totally rocking backing band playing on a setup basically in the rafters. Unlike the Blue Men, the band is covered in fluorescent day-glo paint and look like they just came from some kind of Mexican Day of the Dead parade. Their addition of keys, guitar and full-kit drums really widens the sonic spectrum where the Blue Men’s instruments are front and center.

But its not just a music show. The Blue Man Group show is laugh-out-loud funny. The Blue Man represents a kind of innocence in our crazy world and though he doesn’t say a word, there is a universal connection with the humor that comes from his interactions with the audience and modern things such as cell phones and even dancing. Plus, there are some amazing circus-like feats of amazingness through the show like the famed “marshmallow catch” where (and feel free to try this yourself) two Blue Men stand on opposite sides of this very large stage and throw, at pretty high velocity, marshmallows into each other’s mouths. Try it once. They do it dozens of times and never miss.

I had a chance to do an interview with a member of Blue Man Group once and he told me the preparation for this trick is intense. There are no wires, no mirrors. It’s all real and I know my words do it no justice but to see it is to see something you’ve never, ever seen before.

Truly, the Blue Man Group is such amazing sensory overload, it’s going to ruin you for other shows. I’ve seen KA (which, trust me, is short for Overpriced Kaka) and I’ve seen Cirque’s “O” which had all the same Cirque moments but without even the thin narrative of Ka and I wasn’t into them–mostly because of how phony and synth-y the music was. There was no life to the music. At Blue Man Group, the music was so alive you could feel its heart beating… or maybe that was my heart beating so hard because of the adrenaline rush.

I’ve seen Blue Man Group at its new location at the Venetian and its still an amazing show. You want to see a spectacle that is fun, funny and amazing for all ages as well as men and women alike, get yourself some Blue Man Group Las Vegas tickets because once you to go Blue you never go back.

*Blue Man Group photos by MYN. All rights reserved.

Does it make me a puss that I began to cry during the opening fanfare of Star Wars: In Concert? Does it? Because I did. My love for Star Wars is so great that the sheer power of John Williams’ greatest oeuvre, played live, just friggin’ slayed me harder than Darth Maul’s blazing double-ended lightsaber shish-kabobing of Qui Gon Jin. But I will get to that in a moment.

Now, I could make a “if there is a bright spot in the galaxy you are on the point furthest from” joke about Ontario, California. I really could. Having come here for a couple of podcasting conventions back in the day, which if you haven’t ever been to a podcast con just imagine a non-stop 360 live performance of “Waiting for Guffman” but with a portlier cast, but I digress. Let’s just suffice it to say Ontario is a shithole that makes Dagobah look like Maui.

So it would take something really amazing to drag my ass back there, something like Star Wars: In Concert. I can’t tell you why I missed Star Wars: In Concert when it came to L.A. I really can’t other than they’re marketing is a bit lackluster but when I heard this multimedia concert tour replete with live orchestra playing some of John Williams’ greatest Star Wars classic score synced to fast-action music video style montages from both trilogies projected digitally on a massive screen, I hovered over Ticketmaster on sale day like the Death Star over Alderaan.

And I was rewarded with three floor seats in the fifth row. Ka-bam!

I’ve been fortunate to see Williams conduct the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra a couple of times, of which the inevitable Star Wars theme encore was always the highlight but I can tell you nothing quite compares to hearing several of the maestro’s key Star Wars masterpieces all in one concert like this.

A long time ago in (insert groan here) what feels like a galaxy far, far away I used to make my living writing music for TV, Film and Video Games and during the time I was penning this big orchestral score for Konami’s Project: Overkill, I lived and breathed the first trilogy score CD box set. But hearing these pieces for the first time live, there were so many nuances I never noticed before. Amazing things the woodwinds and brass were doing that practically made my jaw drop.

Nearly all of the close to 20 video montages are dialogue-free save for a handful of iconic sound-bytes but with the score front and center it really goes to show how the music of Star Wars is truly the saga’s emotional backbone. But you don’t need to be a musician to appreciate it. My 5 year old son is a huge Star Wars fan, he’s seen every one of the moves several times and is very familiar with the music through the constant repetition of the score in the Lego Star Wars video game. But even given the limited attention span you would assume a 5 year old would have at an orchestral concert, he was truly engaged with entire program, start to finish–something which also brought a great deal of joy to my heart. Star Wars has always been this wonderful gift that he and I share and just seeing the look on his face during and after the concert and hearing the words “Daddy, I will never forget this.” Made it worth the schlep and expense a hundred times over.

To make the whole experience that much cooler, is the appearance of Anthony Daniels, the actor who played C3PO (one of the only two actors along with R2D2’s Kenny Baker to appear in all 6 Star Wars movies). Daniels is the M.C. and narrator for the show and does a brilliant job of setting up each piece in context of the overall saga. How cool is that? C3-P-friggin’-O in the house.

Also, in the arena concourse were several exhibits from the movies, costumes, props, a full-size Chewbacca among others. But one of the neatest things was there were several “actors” in full costume that you could take pictures with. A young Obi Wan, tie-fighter pilot, X-wing pilot, tuskan raider. However, the piece de resistance for sure was the chance to get a photo with Darth Vader and four stormtroopers. My son flipped over that and it was well worth the 20 minute wait in line.

I told my son events like this are sometimes “once in a lifetime” experiences. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to see something like Star Wars: In Concert ever again but I’m extremely happy that I didn’t miss it this time. The chance to do something with the whole family that I could enjoy as much, if not more than my son was a real treat. I remember seeing the original Star Wars in 1977, the same year my parents split up, so maybe there’s something extremely personal and emotional about my subsequent attachment to this and all the rest of the Star Wars movies but I’m sure I’m not alone. If you’ve read this far, you can probably relate on some level. I love Star Wars and always will. It will always have a deeply special place in my heart and after seeing Star Wars: In Concert, that bond will forever be stronger.

If you are a Star Wars fan, if your kids love the Star Wars movies, you’ll truly enjoy Star Wars: In Concert. But if, like me, Star Wars owns part of your soul, seeing this show will fill your heart with something so powerful and overwhelming that, dare I say it, feels like a… a… Force of some kind. And all corniness aside, I think its one that will be with me always.

More info and how to get tickets for STAR WARS: IN CONCERT

Now, I get the criticisms. Closed-end system. New technology, etc. But for me the iPad is all about one thing, content consumption made easy. I make my living writing and as such I consume TONS of material in the name of research in every form you can imagine.

I’ve had a Kindle for about a year and enjoy it immensely. I read a decent number of books every month and like the instant gratification of on-the-spot wireless delivery. As someone who is in possession of more books than I have room for anymore, I very much appreciate not having more physical copies to find places for in my office, bedroom or living room. A lot of what I read are books that I will read only once. Small digital files in my device are the perfect places for them. I especially like only paying about ten bucks for a recent release that I would otherwise have to pay more for in hardback. I am probably a (no pun intended) textbook case of an ebook consumer.

So of course the first thing I did after plugging my new iPad into iTunes and registering it with Apple was to download and boot up the Kindle app. Boom. There it was, my entire digital library of bestsellers I’ve bought so far and much like the Kindle itself or any of the Kindle apps for iPhone or the Mac, it opened up all the books on the last pages I had read. With the small-screen Kindle and the pace at which I read, I’m hitting the ‘next page’ button every thirty seconds. On the iPad, with much more screen real estate, I feel more like I’m reading a real page worth of content before tapping the edge of the screen to flip pages. Another plus with the iPad is its backlit screen allowing me to read in bed without a spouse-disturbing light turned on. The iPad is undoubtedly heavier than the Kindle but there is none of that e-ink page refresh that, though I’ve gotten used to, still bugs me a bit.

One of the things I have enjoyed on my iPhone are digital comics. I’m a big fan of the Comixology app but I haven’t regularly bought comics with it because the small-screen experience just doesn’t really satisfy. However, on the iPad, comic books totally rock.

After re-reading, and thoroughly enjoying much more, the comics I have already bought on Comixology, I went and dove into Mark Millar’s brilliant series “Kick Ass” (the source material for the recently released movie of the same name). What is great about comics on the iPad is that now the panels are at least as large as they would be in print and as digital images, much more clear than paper and ink can provide. Even better was the ability to pinch-zoom on a panel to make it bigger so I could really see the detail (or blow up the text for my aging eyes).

And sure I downloaded the Marvel app as well which I really liked but was a bit bummed by the sample-size number of titles they had available. Even still, the free download of The Avengers was enjoyed by me as much as if I had been reading a print copy.

Though the number of comic book titles available digitally are small in comparison to what you’d find at your local brick and mortar comic shop, for someone like me who isn’t a hardcore comic book and collector (I’m not a bagger and boader), it works. Plus, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that it won’t be long before most comic book companies totally embrace this new medium. Just get me all of Garth Ennis’ Punisher TPB’s in digital already, Marvel!

Digital magazines are fantastic on this platform. I’ve had the Zinio app on my iPhone for a while because I get lots and lots of free magazines, some of them in digital form. I don’t enjoy reading a digital magazine on my computer at my desk and the experience is not so great on the iPhone though it will do in a pinch. However, Zinio’s iPad app really makes me feel like I’m reading a full magazine. Pages look like pages and with my National Geographic subscription, I can see all those award-winning nature photos in their full glory. I love reading periodicals but as with newspapers and comic books, I don’t like having to hold onto the physical copies. I definitely feel much more ecologically responsible reading on the iPad.

Netflix movies play beautifully on the iPad. At home, I use a Roku box to stream Netflix to the big screen TV and love the ease of use. On the iPad I was able to watch one of my alltime favorite flicks, Fletch on the back patio with headphones and then finish it up later in bed. The small screen that close takes up a good portion of your field of vision and the effect is very satisfying.

And of course there’s the web. Apple’s new A4 processor clocks at 1Ghz but it screams on the iPad. I swear pages load faster than on Safari on my MacBook Pro. No tabbed browsing in favor of the iPhone-like one window at a time system is not my favorite way to browse but it still lets me keep a page while I browse another window. I read a lot of news, most of it online and surfing the web on the iPad is super snappy. Again, here I can pinch-zoom to resize an article on the fly which is great. Also, I have to say there is something very “Minority Report” type cool about using a decent size touchscreen to browse the web. I do feel much more engaged with the content this way than at my desk with my mouse.

Lastly, battery life is killer. I’ve used the thing for hours at a time without getting close to draining the juice. I do believe the Apple estimate of 10 hours on a charge is accurate. Also I’ve had no WiFi issues with my Airport Extreme router. I didn’t bother getting the 3G enabled iPad because I figured there’d be some kind of way to tether it with my iPhone. Turns out there is, an app called MyWi that turns your jailbroken iPhone into a wireless 3G router.

In short, for me, the iPad is basically a magic electronic book which allows me to get news, books, comics, video, the web, email and movies in a nice compact package. I used to eat breakfast at my desk to read the news. Now I can sit at the table and read it on my newfangled “digital newspaper”. I feel like not only am I more engaged with more content but I can better consume it on my own terms. I am truly loving Apple’s new lifestyle device because it so far does exactly I wanted it to and it does it with little effort. Consider me a very satisfied user.

First, I have an admission to make. I don’t really listen to audiobooks or podcasts. The kind of work I do can’t really be done while listening to them and the only good time seems to be when I’m walking the dog and honestly, I prefer listening to music because most of the time when I’m walking the dog I’m actually working out some kind of story-related problem. And when it comes down to it, I much prefer reading a book and ingesting it at my own pace with no distractions. Call me a purist.

So the honest truth is that I’ve barely listened to any of Scott’s podcasts. (an embarassing admission I made to Scott in an email after reading the book) So, I had zero idea what to expect from CONTAGIOUS other than the concept of being infected with something that makes you want to kill seemed pretty cool.

I have to say that I got hooked on CONTAGIOUS very quickly. Yes, it’s a sequel but I can tell you that not having read INFECTED, I had zero problem picking up what was going on (though now I do plan to read INFECTED as soon as I have time). I’m not going to bore you with details but let’s just say that the story in CONTAGIOUS really works great. The characters are perfect for it and the way some of the scenes are crafted are plain genius. I won’t ruin it for you but there is one scene where a marked confrontation develops between two badasses, Perry and Dew that really made me realize what a great writer Scott is. For realz.

Add to that the deft way he handled doling all the technical stuff, the great levels of continuing suspense and horror and I have to say that Scott Sigler is the perfect blend of Stephen King meets Michael Crichton for my tastes and by far, CONTAGIOUS is better than anything either of them had put out over the last decade. (Yes, CELL is pretty damned close to vintage King and AIRFRAME didn’t totally suck but I stick to my words)

So if you haven’t read CONTAGIOUS and you’re looking for a very satisfying, very well-written thriller with strong elements of horror and techology–a book that really plays out like a big budget Hollywood summer action movie, you cannot go wrong by picking up a copy of CONTAGIOUS.